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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Desperately Seeking 'the Merina' (Central Madagascar): Reading Ethnonyms and Their Semantic Fields in African Identity Histories
Author:Larson, Pier M.ISNI
Year:1996
Periodical:Journal of Southern African Studies
Volume:22
Issue:4
Period:December
Pages:541-560
Language:English
Geographic term:Madagascar
Subjects:ethnicity
place names
ethnological names
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
History and Exploration
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/2637156
Abstract:This article is an exploration of what a temporally and semantically 'deep' reading of African identity names reveals not only about the shifting meanings of ethnic naming over time but about the nature and definition of ethnic identity itself. Taking the case of the Merina of central Madagascar, the article demonstrates that Merina identity is both a historical product of the early 19th century and that that identity was, at origin, a political consciousness that later became ethnicized. These conclusions are reached through a careful reading of the meanings of vernacular identity names (ethnonyms and toponyms) in Malagasy language texts. The author argues that care should be exercised in terming named corporate groups 'ethnic' when the consciousness that binds them together may be of an altogether different nature. Finally, he argues that studies of ethnogenesis and ethnic identity transformation must be extended into Africa's precolonial past and greater attention paid to the agency of Africans in identity politics. Notes, ref., sum.
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